饮 meaning and stroke order
To swallow, to drink; a kind of drink
How to write 饮, stroke by stroke
7 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
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- 5
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Meaning of 饮
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- to drink
- old variant of 飲|饮[yin3]
- to give (animals) water to drink
How 饮 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Food.
饣 gives the meaning and 欠 hints at the sound.
Radical: 饣 (food), shared by 43 characters on this site.
How to remember 饮
The left side 饣 is the food radical, and the right side 欠 shows a person with an open mouth. Picture an open mouth next to food and drink, ready to swallow: 饮 (yǐn), to drink.
饮 is more formal and written than 喝 (hē). It mostly appears in compound words like 饮料 (yǐnliào, beverage), 饮食 (yǐnshí, diet) and 餐饮 (cānyǐn, catering). Example: 你想喝什么饮料？(Nǐ xiǎng hē shénme yǐnliào?) What drink would you like?
Common mistake: Learners often say 我饮水 in everyday speech when 我喝水 (wǒ hē shuǐ) sounds natural. Save 饮 for set words, signs and formal writing. Also watch the right side: it is 欠 (qiàn), not 次 (cì) or 吹 (chuī).
Common words with 饮
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 饮料 | yǐnliào | drink; beverage | HSK 5 |
| 饮食 | yǐnshí | eating and drinking; food and drink; diet | HSK 5 |
| 餐饮 | cānyǐn | food and beverage; catering | HSK 5 |
| 饮用水 | yǐnyòngshuǐ | drinking water; potable water | HSK 7-9 |
| 饮水 | yǐn shuǐ | to drink water; drinking water | HSK 7-9 |
| 饮酒 | yǐnjiǔ | to drink wine | |
| 饮用 | yǐnyòng | drink; drinking or drinkable (water) | |
| 饮品 | yǐnpǐn | beverage | |
| 畅饮 | chàngyǐn | to have a few drinks; to drink to one's heart's content | |
| 冷饮 | lěngyǐn | cold drink |
饮 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 饮
How many strokes are in 饮?
饮 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 饮 mean?
饮 (yǐn) means to swallow, to drink; a kind of drink. A common word with it is 饮料 (yǐnliào), meaning "drink; beverage".
How do you pronounce 饮?
饮 is pronounced yǐn, in the third tone (dipping).
What is the radical of 饮?
The radical of 饮 is 饣, which carries the idea of "food". Dictionaries list 饮 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 饮?
The traditional form of 饮 is 㱃 and 飲. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 饮 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 饮 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 饮 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 2.
What is the difference between 饮 and 喝?
Both mean to drink. 喝 (hē) is the everyday spoken verb. 饮 (yǐn) is formal or literary and mostly lives inside compounds like 饮料 and 饮用水.
Does 饮 have another pronunciation?
Yes. Read as yìn (fourth tone), it means to give animals water to drink, as in watering horses. This reading is rare, and you will almost always see yǐn (third tone).